For thousands of yeas, farmers have improved their crops by arossbreding plants that have good taits They take polen from one plam. and add it to the flowers of another plant to produce a plant with the traits they want. But crossbreeding is slow and unreliable. Now, there are amazing shortcuts. Sdentists can take a gene from one living thing and put it directly into another plant That way, changes can be made more precisely in a much shorter time period. This new technique can create crops that are pest-proof, disease-resatant, and more nutritous For example, a ice plant has been modified so it gets an extra boost of vitamin A from a daffodil gene. The plant was made for those who don't get enough vitamin A in their diet.